A Toy Museum for a Day

Ages ago we promised we’d attend the next toy museum for a day in Alresford, but with the problems of getting 1979 Sindy online we couldn’t really concentrate our efforts on the event until almost the last minute. Annie was thinking ball gowns and Kathy wanted ballerinas, and we both thought something for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee would be nice.

So it was only in the week beforehand that we started to get our act together, finding suitable dolls, washing them again, styling their hair and dressing them. Now don’t get us wrong, we like to keep our dolls nice anyway, but if you are taking the girls out you really do want them to look their very best, especially because some youngsters may never have seen a Pedigree Sindy and we like to ensure she leaves a good and lasting impression on visitors.

Then – almost disaster – an email to say that the back room at Alresford Community Centre where we would be was in the middle of being redecorated and that we might want to come and have a look in case it changed what we were going to do. We drove over and decided we’d have to change one display which meant a bit of redesign and replanning.

We were up until 2.30am the night before sorting Sindys. Oh it was awful, sitting there with a glass of wine, brushing a Sindy’s hair and talking about the Sindys. You know there is always something new to discover every time you pick up a Sindy, especially when you pick up someone else’s doll because you do know your own dolls. Dolls packed, we went to bed but neither of us slept well.

Next morning was beautiful and it promised to be a lovely day. We arrived to find the centre already full of activity as some toy collectors had arrived extra early and were already working hard to get their displays set up. So we started to unpack the 80 Sindys we had brought with us.